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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Obamacare collapse in Virginia

Finding out what’s in it: With the departure from Virginia of the last insurance companies because of Obamacare’s unworkable rules, in 2018 people will be unable to buy individual health insurance in more than half the state.

Should nothing change before the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s Sept. 27 deadline for insurers to participate, parts of Virginia, including the Roanoke and New River valleys, will be the only places in the U.S. without at least one insurer, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Open enrollment starts Nov. 1 for policies that take effect Jan. 1.

This year, three insurance companies offered individual policies in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

But this spring, Aetna announced that it would no longer participate in the marketplace. Last month, Anthem followed suit. And Optima Health said last week that it would no longer offer individual policies in areas of Virginia where its parent, Sentara Health, did not have hospitals and providers. Although Optima covered only a small percentage of people in western Virginia, the company had been expected to fill the void after Anthem announced its departure, meaning it would have been on track to sell 100 percent of the individual policies in the region.

Of course, the blame falls on the Republicans, who had nothing to do with writing or passing Obamacare and have tried endlessly to either get it repealed or revised but have had all these actions blocked by the Democrats and a handful of fake Republicans who really are Democrats in sheep’s clothing. Sadly, it appears that most of the Republican Party has thrown in the towel and has decided it isn’t worth the effort any longer fixing Obamacare. Instead, we shall see the entire collapse of the health insurance industry.

Too bad no one predicted this collapse, except for every single reasonable conservative in the entire country.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

2 comments

  • Cotour

    And so through fear of financial destruction Obamacare transforms into Universal Obamacare, one state at a time. Chuck S. has plainly stated that that indeed is what he and his co conspirators want. This is what he will attempt to black mail Trump with in their negotiations. I do not believe that Trump will play his game and Trump must somehow leverage Chuck into a corner on this issue. Trump must flip the script on Chuck and he must play both sides against each other to attain the best result. What exactly that is I do not know.

    (Trump should be reaching a level of comfort after 9 months in office in figuring out how exactly he is going to manipulate both sides. I assumed it would take about a year before he really either gets owned and is throttled back or does the owning and forces some other agenda than the one that has been being forced upon us all. Trump has great potential, lets see what he does with it, does he rise to the occasion or does he just tread water? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/us/politics/trump-republicans-third-parties.html )

    Similar to the $20 T debt, there comes a point where no one dares oppose it because of the inherent perceived instability. Don’t rock the boat, it will sink. Don’t sink the boat! Just like the debt, there is a logic, design and plan here. It may all be insane, but there it is.

  • ken anthony

    There seems to be a presumption of good faith in the GOP which has been proven unjustified. The key was how they demonized the tea party years ago, but losing the ObamaCare repeal by one vote is very revealing. It’s not about John McCain.

    They never take a vote until they first know the outcome. If a vote fails by three votes it means they weren’t able to nail down two votes. When it fails by one it means they were absolutely certain about everybody. Not McCain alone. Everybody.

    Those allowed to vote for something that fails is just for show, just as it was for the last seven years.

    They are all liars. Everybody in Washington and New York.

    Tea party is working behind the scenes to fix this but are handicapped by not being professional liars.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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